Teresa Consuelo, UK
This is an example of maintaining discipline when teaching teenagers. Teresa has written more advice on teaching teenagers which is on the following page:TRY - Other - Managing teenagers

Try to channel their energies as opposed to squashing theirs to replace theirs with yours. I give an example:

A social problem arose among the children that was dividing the whole class outside lessons. The children mentioned it to me time and again until one day one child started to chant "bring him to trial, bring him to trial,..." in Spanish and was soon joined by others. I had two options: I could have squashed this energy and insisted on greater decorum, dismissed the whole subject or insisted on an apology by the offending party and an acceptance by the offended, before ploughing on with my lesson plan.

However, I found their spontaneity and "daring" quite refreshing and I actually started to laugh with them. I saw a great opportunity for some real English.

I asked them "Do you want to have a court trial?" Gradually the word got round the now rowdy classroom and they started cheering with delight. We discussed whom we would need in the courtroom, including an able translator for the defendant, whose English was not up to much. I told them that this was their court case and that they were going to come to a decision once they had heard both sides of the story. In effect I was not "there." However, if I heard any Spanish at all being used (except to a translator), the whole court case would be adjourned to outside the classroom and we would continue with my lesson plan!

The results were incredible. Even I was surprised at how well they manipulated the language to get their messages across. And they solved their own problem, inflicting on the accused the punishment of having to be the last one in the mealtime queues for the whole of the following week!

Needless to say, the class wanted to change the plans for a good while after, feeling enormously empowered. But smiles and insistence and extra special preparation of involving, group activities won them back round again, with all the more trust for their teacher and an increased sense of fun.

I used to sit with the children when explaining activities/grammar standing only to use the board or if distraction was on the increase, without breaking the flow if at all possible. As soon as the studious atmosphere was regained, I sat with them again, at the head of the table but always on the least comfortable chair.

I hope some of these ideas will help further your enjoyment of teaching teenagers. Remember, often it is not them but our own fear of them which encourages teenagers to live right down to our depressing expectations of them. These are based purely on general hearsay that "teenagers behave badly" for you can never know that a group will behave badly before you know its members. If we taught young children in a way that presumed they would behave badly unless we gave them no leeway, I think we would all be horrified that such small people could behave so appallingly badly.

As teenagers go, I think teachers in Spain are extremely fortunate. Spanish parents still expect their children to respect their teachers and this expectation runs deep. Not so in Britain where the teacher has become the enemy and this, too, is reflected in the way teenagers respond to them in the classroom.

If you cannot genuinely love your pupils as their parents' children or, even more so, as one of God's children, then try to pretend they are loveable, human beings stepping tentatively onto that exciting threshold of adulthood who, like the rest of us, just want to be given another chance when they make a mistake and "go too far."

I hope some of this helps.

Carmen Rhor, Peru
Dear Jorge,
You are not alone. As I said in another comment, I've been involved in ELT for the last 25 years and apparently for the first time in my life I have found your same problem.

In fact, there is just one negative leader in my class who seems to feel superior and actually he is the one who never does homework and consequently is always complaining about doing anything in class (he, indeed, has his followers! And here I am talking about people from ages 17 to 23).

My advice is: Be yourself, try to have control of the class by being charming but demanding. If you assign homework, correct it but assign it gradually.

If you have any suggestions to me, that would be appreciated as well.
Cheers.

Adriana Anaya, Mexico
After 20 years as English teacher to teenagers I can tell that is difficult to control a group of 45 students but not impossible

A) Attitude
Selfconfidence, a clear,loud voice and sometimes a warm smile. They need to know that you are the teacher, not a good friend or an enemy, just the teacher, teenagers need to trust in someone stronger than they are.

B) Everyday work control.
You need an everyday work plan, not a lot of work, maybe one exercise or two and check every student task in a special control page that you can design, You can give extra points to students that work harder.

C) New options.
Try to have your students work in different ways every day, it doesn't matter if you are teaching the same topic for days, use different strategies and activities.

D) Extreme groups.
There are groups that need extreme strategies. Sit your students according to the class roll and try everyone working alone, after some days you can let them work in teams. If they do a good job, continue in the same way. If not, return to individual work, it looks so traditional but it works. I know.

E) Materials design.
Try to design and plan material according to your students' real lives.

Antony Price, Spain
Discipline in a class, it seems to me, depends on a range of factors.

1. The educational centre where you teach will have a formal or informal 'approach to discipline'. What is their policy?

2. The atmosphere of the classroom is often dependent on how well students know the teacher and each other and what sort of discipline they are subjected to in other classes they may attend.

The orthodox approach to discipline has always been to say that it requires punishment. If children misbehave, since time immemorial, some of them - like some adults - have accepted the punishment and continued to break the rules. Common practice in some educational centres may range from

1. moving a child to a different seat so as to separate children who talk a great deal.

2. sending a child out of the classroom, perhaps with a given task

Other punishments, we should not forget, which are perhaps less acceptable than the basic responses already listed, are striking children and giving them ridiculous tasks, such as writing 100 times I will believe in the iron rule of law. Punishment is often counter productive. The carrot and stick approach, however, remains a common approach. If you can move away from the concept of punishment and learn to capture attention, then all well and good. Finding out what is making children misbehave, by asking them at the start of a class perhaps, by getting feedback, might help. I have found that the start of a lesson is a good time to exchange some words, but that teaching requires a distance to be defined between teacher and pupil and that being drawn into negative discussion in the middle of a class can be counter productive ... 'we'll talk about that later'.

Daryoosh Firoozpoor, Iran
Jorge, I think you should learn many games in this regard. Teenagers should be attracted to the subject. One of the efficient ways to interest them is to activate them with pedagogical games so that the natural mood of the class can be controlled.

Huda Elsawy
I think discipline problems can be solved by the magic of interest, just get them interested

Hicham, Morocco
In a place and time like this, you can never treat your students like brothers. This is what I tried to implement. Students think that you are weak and unable to contolthe class. Now, I realised that I have to be strong with those who think themselves strong. Anyway my kind treatment at the beginning will now give me the pretext to use expulsion and or force. The teacher is kind with kind students and bad with bad ones. Now just let your students know and feel the change.